Perception of inter-professional education (IPE) among laypersons in a Japanese rural area

Many overseas healthcare researchers have advocated the importance of inter-professional education (IPE). However, to what extent laypersons, who reside in Japanese rural areas, understand IPE is not well known. To clarify this issue, we interviewed laypersons regarding their perception of IPE. We selected one rural area in Japan, where over 40% of the residents were more than 65 years old. Participants, who had an interest in their community healthcare system, were nominated. Semi-structured interviews of approximately 60 minutes were performed and topics focused on were: 1. laypersons' perception of IPE, 2. laypersons' views on educating future medical professions, and 3. what laypersons could contribute to the educating of future medical professionals. Nine participants (58 to 88 years, 1 female and 8 males, mean 76 years) took part. We found three common themes among the interviewees. These were: 1. little knowledge about IPE, 2. positive attitudes towards educating future medical professionals, 3. original ideas concerning how to educate medical professionals. We also found that laypersons in this rural region did not fully understand IPE. As one potential educational method, we should promote IPE involving laypersons. For future study, we plan to explore medical professionals' opinions, and compare them with those of laypersons'.